The plans to develop a 160-room Holiday Inn hotel in the Posner building at 152 W. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Milwaukee are dead. The project was proposed by Milwaukee-based Gabaldon Properties and North Liberty, Iowa-based Kinseth Hospitality Companies. Gabaldon has rescinded its offer to purchase the 100-year-old building, said Johnny Vassallo, the building's owner and the owner of Mo's Restaurants.

"We just decided, with what is going on in the economy and the credit markets, that the timing was not right to move forward with the project," said Charles Gabaldon, the owner of Gabaldon Properties. "I don't want to get into any details."

"I just don't think (Gabaldon) was able to get the deal together," Vassallo said. "I'm not really sure why, exactly. It's hard to get financing right now. I think he tried really hard."

Vassallo said he still hopes to sell the seven-story, 108,000-square-foot building for about $5.8 million. The building has an assessed value of $2.9 million, according to city records. The building's location at the northwest corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Plankinton Avenue places it right at the heart of downtown, Vassallo said. "It's right at ground zero for everything that is happening in Milwaukee," he said.

Vassallo said he is in negotiations with three potential buyers: a local developer interested in creating live-work apartments in the building; a Chicago hotel developer; and an Indianapolis hotel developer. He also will consider offers from other potential buyers. As part of any deal, Vassallo's Mo's Irish Pub restaurant will remain in the building. If an attractive offer does not come together, Vassallo said he may rekindle his previous plans to develop a hotel in the building. "I always dreamed of doing a 'Mo-Tel' there," he said.

In recent months, Vassallo has scaled back his restaurant holdings to focus on his two most successful concepts: Mo's A Place for Steaks and Mo's Irish Pub. On Friday he opened a new Mo's Irish Pub at a lifestyle shopping center in Noblesville, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis. That restaurant is based on the highly successful suburban model established at the Wauwatosa Mo's Irish Pub, Vassallo said.

The newest Balistreri Sendik's Food Market grocery store will open Thursday, May 15, at 7901 W. Layton Ave. in Greenfield. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Greenfield Mayor Mike Neitzke are expected to attend the store opening celebration at 9:30 a.m. “I think the new Sendik's will be the cornerstone of a renaissance along Layton Avenue and 76th Street," Neitzke said. "We're elated." The Sendik's store will occupy a 60,000-square-foot space that was formerly a Jewel Osco grocery store. About 180 employees will work at the new store.

"Our reputation is built on the high-quality employees that we recruit and train, along with our great grocery offerings. We're pleased about the quality of applicants we have and will be bringing the same quality and diverse offerings to the new Greenfield store that are the hallmark of Sendik's," said Ted Balistreri, the owner of the Greenfield Sendik's store. He also owns Sendik's stores in Elm Grove, Franklin, Grafton, Mequon, Wauwatosa and Whitefish Bay, and plans to open a Sendik's store this fall in Germantown.

The Sendik's store in Greenfield will anchor a 90,000-square-foot shopping center that has been renamed Sendik's Commons. Devo Properties announced recently that it has fully leased Sendik's Commons. The other tenants leasing space in the shopping center are Massage Envy, Cricket Communications, Toppers Pizza, Regency Beauty Institute, Alpha Cleaners and Great Clips.

"The space to be occupied by the new Sendik's has literally been transformed," said Sendik's Commons developer Greg Devorkin. "I know residents of Greenfield will be delighted. We've gone from a drab space to an upscale showpiece suitable to house the Sendik's brand. Their high-quality reputation helped us attract our other fine retail tenants, and we're proud to usher in a new shopping experience with the new Sendik's Commons."

The Lake Geneva City Council recently voted unanimously to reject a rezoning request for the proposed Mirbeau-Hummel development. The city held an advisory referendum for the controversial development and voters, by approximately a 3-to-1 margin, said they opposed it.

Palatine, Ill.-based The Hummel Group and Skaneateles, N.Y.-based The Mirbeau Companies want to build a 882-home residential development with a resort, a winery, a 10,000-square-foot restaurant and 46,800 square feet of retail space on a 710-acre site north of Willow Road and west of South Shore Drive.

After the referendum vote, but prior to the City Council's vote, Hummel and Mirbeau filed a notice of injury alleging that Lake Geneva officials violated the law when they held the advisory referendum on the development. John Terrell, development executive for Mirbeau-Hummel, said the notice of injury was filed to keep the developers' options open so they could file a lawsuit, if necessary.

After the City Council's vote against the project, Terrell said in a statement, "We are disappointed, but not surprised (by the council's vote). The zoning process was side tracked, and we intend on protecting our property and procedural rights. Therefore, we will continue with the legal process and follow it to its rightful conclusion. We are hopeful that we will come to some resolution with the city as part of the legal process, to determine what is in the best interest of the city and its residents. Therefore, we are confident that a zoning ordinance will eventually be adopted for the property."

Volunteers and future homeowners started construction this week on eight homes that will be built in Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood. The homes will be located in the 2900 block of North Fifth Street and the 2900 and 3000 blocks of North Seventh Street.

To attract public attention to the project, one of the homes will be framed in the Miller Park parking lot and later moved to the neighborhood.

Construction of two additional homes in the Harambee neighborhood will start in the next few weeks.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is providing 65 percent of the building costs, or $689,980, to Milwaukee's Habitat for Humanity for the construction of the 10 homes. The funding is part of a $125 million four-year alliance between Thrivent Financial and Habitat for Humanity International. By the end of this year 30 Milwaukee families will be living in homes built through the alliance.

Last year 10 homes were built in the Harambee neighborhood and 10 homes were built in the Washington Park neighborhood in 2006.

Wangard Properties LLC recently purchased the 47-year-old, three-story, 30,348-square-foot former Park Manor Health Care Center nursing home building at 1824 E. Park Place, on Milwaukee's east side, from New York-based SMV Milwaukee LLC for $1 million. Marilyn Haroldson of Equity Commercial Real Estate brokered the sale for the buyer and the seller.

The property was originally listed at $2.6 million, and some developers were willing to pay that price, Haroldson said. However, those developers wanted to develop student housing on the property, and those plans ran into political opposition, she said, killing those deals.

Wangard plans to begin demolition work of the building this week, according to spokesman Evan Zeppos. The demolition is expected to be complete by summer, when Wangard will begin construction of a four-story, 61-unit apartment building on the site. The construction for the apartment building is expected to be completed by June of 2009.